Oddities News Archive - December 01, 2008

With the economy drooping, Britons may be tightening their belts by turning to sex for cheap entertainment, a survey purports.
A YouGov survey of 2,000 adults revealed sexual intercourse was the most popular free activity, more so even than window shopping or gossiping, the BBC reported Monday.

Those New York residents who are considering decorating a Christmas tree in front of their homes in the city limits should think twice, officials say.
Officials said the trees themselves are typically allowed to reside on city sidewalks, but the holiday trees become illegal once the traditional ornaments and Christmas lights are added, The New York Daily News said Sunday.
Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said the regulation against decorated sidewalk trees has been around for decades and typically is only enforced when decorations threaten the tree's health.
We are neither Scrooge-like or Grinch-like as long as the tree is okay, the official said, adding violators are rarely fined.
Those wishing to avoid a conflict with the parks department can attempt to obtain a permit for a decorated sidewalk tree, Benepe said.
Frances Vella-Marrone of the Dyker Heights Civic Association questioned why such a little-known regulation was even in place in the city.
They didn't ask for the tree but the

Loyal fans of the Boston Red Sox can now back their team even in death thanks to new coffins featuring the MLB team's logo, a funeral director says.
Magoun-Biggins Funeral Home co-director Dan Biggins said his site in Rockland, Mass., has received the first-ever officially licensed Red Sox coffin and will begin offering the sports-related funerary item to diehard Sox fans, The Boston Globe said Monday.
It's really a beautiful thing, Biggins said.

A new Quebec beer whose goal is to raise money for the province's independence from Canada isn't experiencing stellar sales.
Retired high school teacher Jacques LeDuc is one of the co-founders of the fundraising beer called l'Independante, which went on the market this fall, the Globe and Mail reported.
He told the newspaper 22 investors each pooled $22,000 to get the beer made and marketed with an eye to raising money for separatist causes after paying manufacturing costs.
He said if 100,000 sovereigntists were to drink one Independante a month, $300,000 would go to the sovereigntist cause each year.

Police in Columbus, Ohio, said a real estate agent and an Ohio State University medical center employee have been charged with running a prostitution business.
Columbus vice detectives said Christopher Johnson was arrested on felony prostitution charges after he allegedly used his work computer at the

British authorities allege a visitor to Woodhill Prison tried to smuggle a can of tear gas into the facility inside his false leg.
The 25-year-old man, whose name was not released, was arrested at the prison in Milton Keynes, Bucks, after guards noticed he seemed nervous as he went through security

A Dutchman known as Europe's most committed sperm donor says he's fathered 46 children and is willing to keep at it.
I do it because I know how hard it is for people who desperately want a child, said Ed Houben, a tourism guide from Maastricht.
One of the reasons Houben is so popular, he said, is because